Iran executed at least 1,639 people last year, the highest number recorded there since 1989, two non-governmental organisations say.

Most of those hanged were convicted of drug-related offences or murder, they say. But at least 57 were convicted of security-related charges, including two protesters.

The NGOs warn that Iranian authorities could use executions even more extensively this year in the wake of January's protests and the war against the US and Israel.

Since the start of the conflict on 28 February, seven people have been executed in connection with the protests, when thousands of demonstrators were killed and tens of thousands detained during an unprecedented crackdown by security forces.

Six people convicted of membership of the exiled opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) have also been executed, along with one person convicted of spying for Israel.

Iran has long been the world's second most prolific executioner after China, where the exact number of people put to death remains a state secret but is believed by human rights activists to be in the thousands.

However, last year saw the highest number of recorded executions in the Islamic Republic for 36 years, with an average of four per day, according to the report by IHR and EPCM.

They say 795 of the 1,639 people hanged were convicted of drug-related offences, a 58% increase compared to 2024, and that 747 were convicted of murder, which was a 79% increase. Another 37 people were convicted of rape.

At least 48 women were executed, which was a 55% increase compared to 2024 and the highest number recorded in more than 20 years.

The NGOs say ethnic minorities and other marginalised groups were disproportionately represented among those executed.

And just over half of the executions were based on sentences handed down by Revolutionary Courts after what the NGOs describe as "grossly unfair trials and without due process".

IHR and EPCM warn that, if the Islamic Republic "survives the current crisis, there is a serious risk that executions will be used even more extensively as a tool of oppression and repression".

At least 16 people sentenced to death in connection with the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests remain at risk of execution, the NGOs say.

Twenty-seven others have been sentenced to death over the protests at the start of this year, while hundreds more are facing charges carrying the death penalty.

Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of ECPM, said the question of abolishing the death penalty had to be "at the heart" of any talks between the US and Iran on ending their war, according to AFP news agency.

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam noted that there was "no mention of the Iranian people's rights" at the negotiations over the weekend, and said a death penalty moratorium and the release of all political prisoners should be "demand number one".